This project has already launched.

I've been completely obsessed with charms for a long time. My husband and I buy tons at cons, love gushing over them, and want to see them dangling in all kinds of dangly places (uh what).

I ran through a Kickstarter before, and was desperate to get some of the other designs I brainstormed out to the world. My thought: what is adorable, a little bit weird, and might be delicious if applied to the right food selection? The answer: mythical creatures!

Yeah, that's a weird train of thought. But it got me to these designs, full of fat, chubby mythical creatures that I personally love very much on top of assorted food! They're all going to be printed as acrylic charms, and there are 8 to choose from (holy cow, CHOICES)!

Choose from the following designs:

Eggs and Bacon Dragon

Ice Cream Griffin

Ramen Kappa

French Fries Kraken

Strawberry Log Cake Unicorn

Pink Sushi Mermaid

Blue Sushi Mermaid

Green Sushi Mermaid

Charm Details:

2" size, printed on clear acrylic

Come on randomly colored braided straps

Each has a little bell! TOO CUTE INDEED

Printed by Zap Creatives, so the quality is high

Double sided: the same design is on the front and back!

SAMPLE:

This is an example of what the charms will look like! They're printed on thick acrylic, and have a ring in them for a braided cellphone strap. This is just an example and doesn't reflect the final look/placement of the hole; I figure that out with Zap! The charms will also have a little bell on them, like so:

This bell might change depending on availability when we place the order, but this is the image from the seller I've chosen!

THE FIXINGS:

Each charm will be packaged up in a clear bag and attached to a cute piece of heavy cardstock to keep them safe and rigid during their trip to you! They'll have randomly colored braided cellphone straps, because those are cuter and a lot more sturdy.

We've been talking about bringing charms to conventions for a while now, but the cost is high and the risk for us as a smaller con presence is a little much. My husband and I do a lot of work for my art, but we're just too little to front this expense on our own without any guarantee as to whether or not they'll sell. We want to see if these charms will be well received and well loved, and if they are, freaking awesome! We'll pump out more orders and bring them to conventions locally if they do well here.

Most importantly, we want to see if you guys love them as much as we do. We had a hard time with the end result of our first charm Kickstarter and decided to push through with this batch because we loved it, and you guys believed in us. SO here are the tasty end results!

I made this chart breakdown so you can see how much all of this will cost specifically!

Stretch goals will change costs and I'll have to adjust accordingly, but this represents the total costs for ordering, packaging, and shipping all 100 charms, at $596.

We have big plans for all of our stretch goals, and have worked on making sure the costs are feasible so we can get to them and send you all some super extra goodies!

GOAL 1: Sticker sets!! $250 over goal, $846 total

These are the little cuties that will be shipped out to each person who ordered at least one charm! This cost includes production and shipping adjustments!

GOAL 2: A signed print!! $750 over goal, $1346 total

I'll draft a few available prints to choose from, and you can pick your favorite! It'll be printed as a 5" x 7" image on high quality paper, signed, and sent straight to you to put wherever the heck you want! Designs will be started if we hit this goal!

GOAL 3: 5 more designs added!! $1000 over goal, $1596 total

Holy guacamole!! 5 more designs are now going to be added to the pool of designs to choose from! I'll list a whole bunch of mythical creatures, and backers will vote on the 5 they want to see!

GOAL 4: Button sets with new designs!! $1400 over goal, $1996 total

WE'VE GOT BUTTONS, PEOPLE! I'll start buying and producing the gear needed to make sets of buttons with new designs of the creatures on them, in different poses and looking freaking cute!!

GOAL 5: 5 MORE designs and a secret mystery gift!! $2000 over goal, $2596 total

THIS IS THE MEGALOAD! We'll add 5 MORE designs to the pool of available designs, with the same voting process as before! I'll also be creating a new secret reward for all backers of one charm or more--what will it be?? We'll have to get to this reward to find out! But it might be a notebook, apparel, or something else cute!

Q: Why did you pick Zap Creatives? A: They're a good price, and they're very highly reviewed by lots of artists online. We've also met artists at conventions who used them, and were happy with the process.

Q: What will the quality be like? A: The quality is SWEET. We have a sample pack of charms we ordered from Zap, and it arrived quickly and looked really great.

Q: Will I be able to get these anywhere else? A: We hope so! If this is successful, we'll order more to add to our Etsy shop and start bringing them to conventions.

Q: When will the charms ship? A: We are ordering them once we receive the Kickstarter money after a successful funding, which takes about 14 days. After that, we send the order to Zap, who takes 5 to 10 business days to finish the order. Shipping takes about 1 to 3 days (woo expensive order so free shipping), and once we get them, it'll take us about 7 to 9 days to get everything cleaned up, proofed, and packaged for shipment. Shipping within the US will arrive within 3 to 5 business days. SO! That means you'll get your charm within 1 month from funding at best, and within 41 days from funding at the LATEST.

Q: How do I specify what charms I want? A: After the Kickstarter is funded, we'll send out a survey asking what charms you want. This is when we'll get your address for shipping too, so make sure you check your email!

Q: How safe is Kickstarter? A: Kickstarter is very safe. I don't get access to your credit card info, and I only get access to your address when you send it for shipping or if you enter it at checkout. It's a crowdfunding site, so if you want more information on that, check out the Kickstarter rules and regulations on crowdfunding. But for a basic rundown: I only get the money if we are 100% funded, and once I have the money, it's my obligation to fulfill the order. Not all Kickstarter creators are good about doing that or doing it on time, so there is a risk there, and you have to trust the project and the creator to fill their end of the bargain (which I will <3).

Q: Do I have to get a charm, or can I just leave money? A: If you want to just leave money, you totally can. Custom pledges are available, just check the tier rewards!

I'm a dweebo and nerdette who really enjoys video games. I've only recently cracked back into drawing seriously (maybe within the last 3 to 4 years?), and I've been working this sweet butt off trying to get better at it all the time. Finding the balance with things I love to draw for you cool kids is awesome. I'm also pursuing a degree in game design, so look forward for some video game updates and Kickstarter projects in the future!

If you want to see my daily happenings and all that jazz, you can find me at any of these wonderful locations:

These designs are copyrighted by Ashley Rivas, and are her sole intellectual property. Each mythical creature is a public domain character and the designs are my own. Do not reproduce these designs or share these images without express permission and consent of the artist, Ashley Rivas.

Risks and challenges

RISK 1: Timing There are a few factors here that could really slow things down. Zap Creatives is in the UK, so if the shipment gets delayed, it'll add extra time to an already slow shipment. It could also be problematic since this will be the first time I've used them; I'll have to make sure that I'm using the templates the right way, and that could throw wrenches into things.

RISK 2: Extra cost I've worked really hard at coming up with precise and accurate cost estimates, but they're still exactly that: estimates. It's possible that things will cost more than I expect, which could slow down the final result.

RISK 3: Man power It's just my husband and I working on these little cuties, so when it comes down to packing them all up and shipping them out, it'll be a lot of work for a two man show. It could slow us down, although we've planned for this pretty well in our time estimate.